Hello, we are looking to improve the selection of new hires and would like to implement a pre-employment test for possible candidates. Does anyone have any samples or can recommend some questions to utilize in the test that will help us to know the level of knowledge of the person applying for the job? We do 50/50 commercial residential work. Thank you in advance for any help.
Pre employment test
- Thread starter SergioLV
- Start date
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JohnE
Senior Member
- Location
- Milford, MA
My thoughts, fwiw, are that the actual code knowledge is less than 25% of what it takes to have a productive employee. I want someone with some code knowledge, of course, but I want someone who can listen, lead at times, take direction at times, work well in our group, be self motivated, and a whole lot more. But everyone's needs may vary. I'm available for anyone working for me with good work habits and needs some guidance. An exam means little to me. Keep us posted on your results.
Thanks for your input. I personally agree 100% with the attributes you mentioned. The idea of implementing a test is to recognize the knowledge of the person and know what he/she is capable of and not just trust the resume and believe everything it says. (This based on previous experiences where the resume didn't match the results at the jobsite). We would like to at least be able to know a little better the capabilities of the person applying. I think we are going to lean towards questions based on hands-on work, reading blueprints, inspections, wiring in general and code only for situations we use more often.
Joe.B
Senior Member
- Location
- Myrtletown Ca
- Occupation
- Building Inspector
Somewhat unrelated because I work for the government but we recently needed to hire another inspector and I recommended asking some more technical questions because everything they had was so fluffy and situational based. "What would you do if..." "You encounter an irate customer..." I found a list of standard construction terminology and just asked them to briefly describe what it was. The answers were very enlightening. The one who got the job didn't look as good on paper but obviously had a better understanding of the construction world.
Thanks for your comment. Everyone's point of view is helpful for us to improve this step we are working on. I really appreciate your time.
JohnE
Senior Member
- Location
- Milford, MA
Well I think you are on the right path. I still think it's about finding the right individual(s). I remember reading here years ago about someone looking to hire and wanted to give candidates a few sample pipe bends as part of an interview. (or something similar) I remember thinking at the time that I had a few real good employees with little pipe bending experience. They wouldn't have shown well. Give them a couple days bending pipe and they'd have fit right in on those jobs. They had great overall skills and knowledge. I know I'm not helping - any good help is tough to find, more now than ever.
Buck Parrish
Senior Member
- Location
- NC & IN
Get your most trusted electricians in your shop to take 100 pieces of electrical material and or tools that an expierienced electrician will know.
Put a tag and a number on each one. Put them in a five gallon bucket.
The applicant will have to pull them out and write down what each one is / does.
Put a tag and a number on each one. Put them in a five gallon bucket.
The applicant will have to pull them out and write down what each one is / does.
Thank you.
Amps
Electrical Contractor
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Electrical, Security, Networks and Everything Else.
And they keep off their cell phone while working!
Strathead
Senior Member
- Location
- Ocala, Florida, USA
- Occupation
- Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
Nowadays, "What is your name?" is a good start.
TwoBlocked
Senior Member
- Location
- Bradford County, PA
- Occupation
- Industrial Electrician
My two cents: Half the electricians don't really, really understand the difference between volts and amps. Half that do, don't really, really understand the difference between AC and DC. Then half of those don't really, really understand power factor. And so on. Somewhere I fall off the edge, too. Yet you don't always need to know how something works, in order to know what to do. And some things an industrial electrician ought to know (like 4-20mA loops) are never required for residential.
There's a popular 2-year trade school nearby. One graduate didn't understand how the seal-in contacts work on a motor starter. Another wondered how a circuit could be both serial and parallel even after wiring four 12v batteries to produce a high amp hour, 24v supply many, many times. Others had been taught to rewire motor starters so the control fuse went to the overload contacts first. They had all passed the trade school tests...
Sooooo... Maybe pay the applicant for a day or two and see what he knows by concepts, or only by facts, out on a job site.
There's a popular 2-year trade school nearby. One graduate didn't understand how the seal-in contacts work on a motor starter. Another wondered how a circuit could be both serial and parallel even after wiring four 12v batteries to produce a high amp hour, 24v supply many, many times. Others had been taught to rewire motor starters so the control fuse went to the overload contacts first. They had all passed the trade school tests...
Sooooo... Maybe pay the applicant for a day or two and see what he knows by concepts, or only by facts, out on a job site.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- Semi-retired engineer
So what is wrong with doing this?
I have run into a LOT of electricians in the field who are close to clueless as far as wiring from a control schematic. Probably the majority. They are good at running pipe and wire and making it look nice but can't read schematics to save their lives.
I think you are really expecting too much to get one guy who can do it all. They might be able to, but it is a good bet they won't be real good at anything. But those guys have their place too.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
I think you look at potential journeyman hires in a different way than you look at potential apprentice hires.
Code and electrical knowledge not nearly as high of concern for apprentices as is for journeymen.
An apprentice that claims some experience or has attended trade school of some sort should know some code and electrical knowledge though.
Questions for an apprentice level guy might be more basic simple mechanical and construction type content, starting as simple as how to use a hammer or a screwdriver. Or a big one in more recent years - how to read a tape measure.
Code and electrical knowledge not nearly as high of concern for apprentices as is for journeymen.
An apprentice that claims some experience or has attended trade school of some sort should know some code and electrical knowledge though.
Questions for an apprentice level guy might be more basic simple mechanical and construction type content, starting as simple as how to use a hammer or a screwdriver. Or a big one in more recent years - how to read a tape measure.
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
I recall from my days at the steel mill that there there two distinct groups of workers- electrical construction and electricians. The first did all the "pipe & pulls" as shown on drawings, the second installed/wired devices and did all the maintenance and troubleshooting. Some of that separation, no doubt, involved labor contracts, but those are very different skills and it was fairly obvious that the EC gang had little idea about why they were installing anything. (Granted this was industrial and that large rectifiers and motor controls fell in with office lights & outlets.)
From that, I often refer to electrical mechanics, who are good at the mechanical aspects of the trade, and to electricians, who understand what the wires and devices are doing. Some people are good at one and terrible with the other.
From that, I often refer to electrical mechanics, who are good at the mechanical aspects of the trade, and to electricians, who understand what the wires and devices are doing. Some people are good at one and terrible with the other.
TwoBlocked
Senior Member
- Location
- Bradford County, PA
- Occupation
- Industrial Electrician
An experienced electrician expecting a motor starter to be wired the standard way from the factory will waste a lot of time trying to figure out what is going on.
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
One takeaway from all of the comments is that whatever set of test questions or practical problems used, the result will be far better if you look at all of the individual answers rather than just looking at an overall score.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
An electrician experienced with controls and logic will figure that out pretty easily.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- Semi-retired engineer
One would hope so given it's a common practice..